Apparatus for coating food articles

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for applying moist, long strands of shredded coconut or similar material to a series of food articles, such as layer cakes, in which the coconut is sprayed onto and around the cakes by rotating impellers as the cakes advance through a chamber. The coconut not adhering to the cakes is collected at the bottom of the chamber by air under pressure and recirculated to the impellers by a conveyor system. A rotating agitator located within a reservoir continually breaks up lumps of the shredded coconut and laterally moving cups carry and crop the coconut to the impellers for application to the food articles.

United States Patent Vogel [451 June 20, 1972 [54] APPARATUS FOR COATINGFOOD ARTICLES [72] inventor: Leo G. Vogel, Downingtown, Pa.

[73] Assignee: Campbell Soup Company, Camden, NJ.

[22] Filed: Sept. 15, 1969 21 Appl. No.: 857,675

2,924,911 2/1960 Leliaert ..1 18/312 UX 3,036,931 5/1962 Kell ..118/321X 3,422,793 l/l969 Lachmann ..1 18/326 X Primary Examiner-John P.Mclntosh Att0rney-l-lowson & Howson [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus forapplying moist, long strands of shredded coconut or similar material toa series of food articles, such as layer cakes, in which the coconut issprayed onto and around the cakes by rotating impellers as the cakesadvance through a chamber. The coconut not adhering to the cakes iscollected at the bottom of the chamber by air under pressure andrecirculated to the impellers by a conveyor system. A rotating agitatorlocated within a reservoir continually breaks up lumps of the shreddedcoconut and laterally moving cups carry and crop the coconut to theimpellers for application to the food articles.

5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures P'ATE'N'TEDJUMO I972 3. 670.694

SHEET 1 OF 5 INVENTOR. BOCL 2 LEO G. VOGEL BY ATTORNEY.

PHENTEDJUHO m2 3. 670.694

SHEET 2 or s INVENTOR. LEO G. VOGEL ATTORNEY.

P'A'TEN'TEnJuuzo m2 3,670,694

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i I INVENTOR. LEO G. VOGEL ATTORNEY PATENTEIJJMO 1972 3,670,694

SHEET 5 OF 5 INVENTOR. LEO G. VOGEL ATTORNEY.

APPARATUS FOR COATING FOOD ARTICLES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In themanufacture of food articles, such as layer cakes, which have coconutparticles adhering to a sticky icing, it has heretofore been possible tomechanically apply only a type of coconut which was in the form offrozen granules or flakes and not the more tasteful, moist, shreddedcoconut. The shredded coconut, which is familiar in the form of thinstrands or shreds about 1 to 2 inches in length and one-thirtysecond ofan inch in width, could not be mechanically applied to food articlesbecause the coconut is very fragile and sticky and the applicatingmachines tended to crush the strips, forcing out the oil and causing thestrips to turn black and adhere to parts of the applicator. The oilyquality of the shredded coconut caused the strands to readily stick toone another and form hard balls or clumps, and to adhere and build up inportions of the machine thereby restricting and finally ending a flow ofcoconut to the fool articles which were to be coated. Specifically, itwas found that the moist, shredded coconut could not be fed by a helicalscrew as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,351,038, nor could it be drawn througha conduit by air pressure as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,451 withoutclogging the conduit. Further, a vibratory feeder of U.S. Pat. No.3,129,114 or the long applicating blades of US. Pat. No. 3,280,791 couldnot apply the long, moist strands of coconut. In short, it was foundthat the applicators available before this invention were adequate tohandle and apply granular and dry coconut to food articles but could notbe relied upon to feed and apply shredded coconut to a series of foodarticles at a controllable rate. For these reasons, shredded coconut hasheretofore been applied by hand to several types of food articlesresulting in greater expense and longer manufacturing procedures.

Therefore, it was the primary object of this invention to provide anapparatus for automatically applying moist, long strands of shreddedcoconut, or similar sticky moist material, to food articles. It was afurther object of this invention to provide apparatus for controlling asdesired the amount of coconut applied to the food articles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, these andother objects have been satisfied by the provision of an apparatus whichfirst accepts moist, shredded coconut in bulk or otherwise in areservoir, breaks up the bulk into a fine mass of separate strands orshreds by means of a rotating agitator and then feeds the coconut at acontrolled rate to a pair of rotating impellers which in turn spray itinto a chamber and onto a line of progressing food articles. The coconutnot adhering to the articles is collected from beneath the chamber andlifted by a conveyor to the reservoir on top of the chamber forrecirculation and application to succeeding food articles.

The preferred form of the apparatus of this invention are describedherein and shown in the attached drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an end, elevational view, with certain structure indicated inbroken lines of the preferred form of the applicator and conveyorapparatus of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section, taken along the lines 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a transverse section taken along the lines 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a transverse section taken along the lines 44 of FIGS. 2 and3;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section taken along the lines 55 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a transverse section taken along the lines 6-6 of FIGS. 2 and3;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an impeller;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of the area designated 8 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a transverse section taken along the lines 9-9 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a transverse section taken along the lines 10-10 of FIG. I;and

FIG. 11 is a diagrammatic view of the end portion of the conveyorapparatus shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In greater detail, the preferred form of theapparatus of this invention comprises an applicator 8 and conveyor shownpreliminarily in FIGS. 1 and 2, the applicator having a generally centercubical chamber 10 (FIG. 2) and two elongated portions 11 at opposingends which in turn provide a food product inlet 12 and an outlet 14. Acoconut discharge opening 16 is located in the bottom of the chamber 10.Chamber 10 is generally defined by flat, vertical side panels 10a, topscreens 22 (FIG. 6) and lower, inclined partitions 26 which form agenerally enclosed space in which shredded coconut is sprayed onto aline of cakes C (FIG. 2) moving through the chamber 10 and portions 11on a conveyor belt 18. The applicator 8 and specifically chamber 10 aresupported by a generally rectangular frame F mounted at four corners onrollers 28 to permit the applicator to be moved into a desired positionadjacent conveyors and other manufacturing equipment. Extendingoutwardly from the bottom of chamber 10 are a pair of slatted air slides24 which collect unused coconut for discharge from opening 16. Twoimpeller assemblies 52 are detachably mounted on frame F and withinchamber 10.

A funnel-shaped, four-sided reservoir 30 is mounted above chamber 10 ona feed base 31 to receive shredded coconut in bulk form to start theprocess or in divided form as dropped from the conveyor apparatus 80 asshown best in FIGS. 1 and 2. An agitator 32 (FIGS. 2 and 3), comprisinga horizontally mounted shaft 33 and a plurality of radially directedbars 34, is mounted for rotation near the bottom of reservoir 30 anddriven by electric motor 36 and drive belt 360.

A feed base 31, located beneath agitator 32 and at the base of reservoir30, includes (FIGS. 4 and 5) a generally transverse, horizontal feedsurface 44, a pair of endless feed chains 40, and a series of generallyV-shaped cups 42 attached to the chains which move along the top ofsurface 44 (FIGS. 4 and 5). Each of the feed chains 40 is supported formovement by a plurality of rollers 46 and sheeves 46a and are driven inopposing directions by an electric motor 48 delivering power throughconnecting gear box 48a and a series of common drive belts and sheevesreferred to generally by the numeral 49. Chains 40 are preferably drivenat a speed of approximately 30 feet per minute and advance cups 42 tocontinually push and carry the shredded coconut in lateral directions,as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 4, away from the bottom of the hopper30 toward the open tops of conduits 50.

A pair of impeller assemblies 52 (FIGS. 1, 2 and 3) are detachablymounted on opposing sides of the chamber 10 to receive through conduits50 the coconut dropped by cups 42. Assemblies 52 are frequently removedfrom chamber 10 for cleaning and allow ready access to the interior ofthe chamber. The impeller assembly 52 (FIGS. 3, 6 and 7) comprises anelectric motor 54 connected to generally horizontal plate 55 on whichare mounted vanes 56. Vanes 56 (FIG. 7) preferably include four straightvanes 56a which fling the shredded coconut generally horizontally towardthe center of the chamber and four curved vanes 56b which fling thecoconut slightly upwardly so that the sprayed coconut deflects from thewalls of the chamber and strikes all sides of the cakes except the basepassing through the chamber. The vanes or impellers are preferablyrotated at a high rate of speed, approximately 1,200 rpm, which preventscoconut from adhering to the vanes.

A pair of deflecting blades 58 (FIG. 3), preferably having an irregularshape as shown in FIG. 6, are mounted for pivotal movement in sleeves58a in chamber 10 and are equipped with threaded, locking stops 58bwhich allow the blades to be held in a selected attitude. Blades 58 arelocated between impellers S2 and the cakes C (FIG. 3) to partiallyinterrupt and direct the flow of coconut away from the cakes C andthereby control the quantity of coconut applied to the cakes. As theblades 58 are lowered toward the vertical position (FIG. 3), theydeflect an increasing proportion of coconut sprayed from the impellersand the deflected coconut drops downwardly to pass out of the chamberthrough bottom discharge opening 16.

A series of cakes C having sticky icing or other types of surface andplaced on a cardboard plate P, are advanced through the chamber andportions 11 by a conveyor 18 (FIGS. 1 and 2) which comprises a pair ofendless, round, silicone covered rubber belts 60 passing around a pairof end sleeves 62 and driven by motor 63 and a belt 64.

Apparatus to collect and return excess coconut from internal portions ofthe chamber and from the cakes C has also been provided. As shown inFIGS. 2, 6 and 8, the two inclined, shingle air slides 24 consist of aseries of separate, overlapping transverse slides 24a which are spacedapart and overlapped to allow air under pressure to pass from beneaththe slides and then over the top surfaces of each slide to thereby pushcoconut downwardly from one slide to another until the coconut falls outof discharge opening 16. Air is supplied through conduits 25. In thisway, coconut which escapes out of chamber 10 and into end portions 1 lis collected for reuse. In addition, a series of air jets 68 are locatedadjacent to and around the inlet and outlet l2, 14, to direct acontinuous flow of air into the chamber and thereby remove coconutshreds from the belt 60 and from the cake plates P. A pair of rotary aircompressors 70, shown in FIG. 2, supply air under pressure to the airconduits 68 which in turn feed the air to the shingled slides 24 and thejets 68 as shown.

A conveyor assembly 80 (FIG. 1) is independently mounted on four wheels80a so that it can be easily moved and positioned to best advantagerelative the applicator 8 as the working conditions allow. A basic frame82 supports a pair of endless conveyor belts 84, 86 which generallyfunction to pick up coconut discharged through opening 16 of theapplicator, lift, and then drop the coconut into the top of reservoir 30for recirculation. The belts 84, 86 are fonned of an elastic material,such as Neoprene, which does not adversely affect the shredded coconut.Outer belt 86, along its lower horizontal portion, is supported by aseries of inclined, cylindrical rollers 88 (FIG. 2) to form a trough inthe center of the belt in which the coconut is initially held. In thedirection of movement, belt 86 then contacts inner belt 84 and togetherboth belts pass around beveled roller 87 (FIG. 9) which has an indentedcenter 89 to avoid compressing the coconut between the belts as theypass around the roller. A vertical back-up plate 92 (FIGS. I and I0) islocated adjacent the back surface of belt 84 during the vertical riseportions of both belts and a pair of spring-biased, L-shaped side bars94 hold the sides of the two belts together thereby preventing coconutCO from escaping from between the belts. The belts then pass over toproller 96, similar in construction to roller 87, and the top horizontalportion of belt 84, which then becomes the coconut supporting belt, iscarried by a series of inclined, cylindrical rollers 97 which again forma trough in the belt. The coconut is carried over the rim of thereservoir 30 until it drops as belt 84 passes around roller 98. Ascraper 99, shown enlarged in FIG. 11, scrapes any adhering coconut frombelt 84 and a rotating brush 100 similarly brushes adhering coconut frombelt 86. Belt 84 then passes around rollers 101, 102 to complete thecircuit. Belt 86 separates from belt 84 afier both belts have passedaround roller 96 and it, in turn, passes consecutively around rollers104, 106, 108 and 110 to complete its circuit. Roller 106 is equippedwith a tensioning spring 106a to maintain the desired tension on belt86. An electric motor 112 drives the belts through a pair of drive gears114, 1140 at a preferred speed of about 60 feet per minute.

The preferred apparatus of this invention as described herein operatessubstantially as follows. A series of articles to be coated, such ascakes C with icing applied, of a size of about 6 by 6 by 3 inches andeach being mounted on a tray, are placed manually or by machine onconveyor belt 18 at the inlet 12 of applicator 8. At the same time,shredded coconut in loose or block form is dropped into reservoir 30.Coconut may also be fed to the applicator through one of the top screens22 (FIG. 6) to slide down surfaces 26 and be picked up by the conveyorapparatus and thereafter carried to reservoir 30. As the blocks or lumpsof coconut strike the rotating agitator 32, they are broken up and thecoconut begins to accumulate as loose and separate strands in the baseof the reservoir 30 and along the top of the flat feed surface 44.Moving feed chains 40 and cups 42 continually draw portions of this headof coconut away from the bottom of the reservoir and carry it outwardlyso that it falls through the conduits 50 onto the rapidly spinning vanesof the impellers 56. The coconut is then sprayed radially into thecenter portion of the chamber 10 and strikes and adheres to the stickysurface of the cakes C advancing on the conveyor 18. The quantity ofcoconut applied to each cake is controlled by the setting of blades 58.Coconut not adhering to the cakes moving through the chamber isdeflected from the interior walls of the chamber and slides downwardlyalong panels 26 to opening 16. The coconut which flies toward the inletand outlet of the chamber drops between the belts 60 onto the shingledslides 24 and is returned to opening 16 by the air currents generated byrotary pump 70. Similarly, excess coconut deposited on the cake plate P,the belts 60 and the cake itself are blown back into the chamber andonto the slides 24 by a series of air jets 68. A continuous stream ofcoconut discharged through opening 16 is picked up on conveyor belt 86and in conjunction with belt 84 is raised to a location above thereservoir 30 and then dumped back into reservoir 30.

The construction of the belts and the relatively small forces employedin pressing the belts together avoids compacting the coconut into hardballs or extracting its oil. Similarly, use of stainless steel to formthe chamber prevents the coconut from being discolored. The shingled airslides allow the coconut to be easily quickly gathered without injury tothe coconut. The applicator as described can completely coat cakes at arate of cakes per minute while avoiding degradation and loss of thecoconut by improper handling.

Although the apparatus and process of this invention have been shown anddescribed with reference to particular structure, it should beunderstood that modifications in the forms shown may be made by personsskilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.For example, the apparatus and process may coat products other thancakes with a material different than shredded coconut. It is noted thatthe velocities of several components stated herein are for example onlyand that in all cases acceptable results will be derived from operationof the apparatus within a range of velocities.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for applying a generally adhesive shredded material such ascoconut uniformly to the surface of each of a series of consecutivelymoving articles such as cakes comprising: a substantially closed chamberadapted to receive the articles therein for coating, a pair of rotatingimpellers mounted within the chamber and on opposite sides of the pathof movement of the articles to be coated to spray the shredded materialabout the chamber and onto the surface of the articles within thechamber, a reservoir located above the chamber to receive and contain asupply of the shredded material, agitating means within said reservoirto continuously agitate the shredded material to break up and separatethe shredded material into shreds, material supply means mounted at thebase of said reservoir and having elements movable in oppositedirections through the reservoir, means to move said elements, saidsupply means being operable to move material at the base of saidreservoir transversely of the reservoir and in opposite directions withrespect to said reservoir to drop the material at a substantiallyuniform rate onto said rotating impellers, and conveying means forcollecting the shredded material not adhering to the articles in thechamber from the bottom of the chamber and returning the same to thereservoir for reuse.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 including article conveyingmeans to move the articles to be coated along a straight path throughthe center of said chamber, and said impellers being mounted forrotation about vertical axes.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the material supplymeans at the base of said reservoir comprises at least one feed chainmoving parallel to the base of said reservoir, and said elements includea plurality of cups attached to the chain to move along the base of thereservoir and thereby pull shredded material from the base of thereservoir and drop the same onto the impellers.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 including a pair of adjustabledeflecting blades positioned within said chamber intermediate saidimpellers and the article to be coated for

1. Apparatus for applying a generally adhesive shredded material such ascoconut uniformly to the surface of each of a series of consecutivelymoving articles such as cakes comprising: a substantially closed chamberadapted to receive the articles therein for coating, a pair of rotatingimpellers mounted within the chamber and on opposite sides of the pathof movement of the articles to be coated to spray the shredded materialabout the chamber and onto the surface of the articles within thechamber, a reservoir located above the chamber to receive and contain asupply of the shredded material, agitating means within said reservoirto continuously agitate the shredded material to break up and separatethe shredded material into shreds, material supply means mounted at thebase of said reservoir and having elements movable in oppositedirections through the reservoir, means to move said elements, saidsupply means being operable to move material at the base of saidreservoir transversely of the reservoir and in opposite directions withrespect to said reservoir to drop the material at a substantiallyuniform rate onto said rotating impellers, and conveying means forcollecting the shredded material not adhering to the articles in thechamber from the bottom of the chamber and returning the same to thereservoir for reuse.
 2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 includingarticle conveying means to move the articles to be coated along astraight path through the center of said chamber, and said impellersbeing mounted for rotation about vertical axes.
 3. Apparatus inaccordance with claim 1 in which the material supply means at the baseof said reservoir comprises at least one feed chain moving parallel tothe base of said reservoir, and said elements include a plurality ofcups attached to the chain to move along the base of the reservoir andthereby pull shredded material from the base of the reservoir and dropthe same onto the impellers.
 4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1including a pair of adjustable deflecting blades positioned within saidchamber intermediate said impellers and the article to be coated forcontrollably deflecting at least a portion of the material sprayedwithin said chamber by said impellers away from the article to be coatedand thereby control the quantity of said material applied to eacharticle.
 5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the means toreceive material from beneath said chamber and return the same to saidreservoir includes a pair of conveyor belts pressed together along aportion of their lengths to retain and convey shredded materialtherebetween and separated along another portion of their length toreceive shredded material from beneath the chamber.